GLOBE New Zealand has launched an agenda-setting new report on how to get the country to net zero emissions in the second half of the century.

Entitled, Net Zero in New Zealand: Scenarios to achieve domestic emissions neutrality in the second half of the century, the report was written by UK-based think tank, Vivid Economics and commissioned by GLOBE New Zealand, a cross-party group of 35 MPs.

GLOBE NZ is chaired by Dr Kennedy Graham, and the executive committee includes Hon Peter Dunne, Marama Fox, Tracey Martin, Scott Simpson, and Dr Megan Woods. Its membership comprises one third of the New Zealand parliament and includes every political party.

The report presents four potential scenarios to achieving net zero emissions and represents one of the first efforts in scenario planning to chart a low-emission pathway across all sectors of the economy. In so doing, it joins only five other countries which have announced mid-century, long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies so far - France, US, Mexico, Germany and Canada. The GLOBE NZ report, however, is not a government strategy but an input to political and policy debate initiated by a cross-party group of parliamentarians.

Speaking of its importance, Dr Kennedy Graham said: “The breakthrough here is that the group [GLOBE NZ] now owns a shared report on emissions reductions that it can debate with greater clarity than ever before,” said Dr Graham. “Parliament has in fact decided that it will hold a debate in April, focused specifically on the report. That, too, is unprecedented.”

The reports key conclusions are that resetting New Zealand onto a zero emissions pathway will involve 'substantial change to patterns of energy supply and use' including 100% renewables, changes to the country's land use system - read, 'peak dairy - and considerable technological innovation and afforestation.

The report has already stimulated considerable debate in the media and business community. There will now be a formal parliamentary debate on 13th April with cross-party support and engagement.

GLOBE NZ has set an excellent example for other parliaments to follow and GLOBE International is keen to promote similar national studies to stimulate and inform legislative and policy debate on the critical question of how to get to net zero.